Computer assisted cutting and packing

Abstract

The objective of this project is to develop algorithms for solving industrial problems of combinatorial nature and analyze their computational aspects. The main objects of this research project are the cutting & packing problems. The cutting (packing) problem consists basically in determining the cutting patterns (packing) of unities of material in order to produce a set of smaller unities, satisfying some constraints. This project aims to promote the scientific and technological development and also the formation of human resources in the area of computer assisted cutting and packing. The main topics that are going to be investigated in this project can be summarized as: pattern sequencing problems; algorithm for cutting and packing, with emphasis on guillotine cuts (a cut going from one side to the other of the object, dividing it into two pieces), in serial and distributed environments; and/or graph approach to cutting and packing problems. This thematic project integrates researchers from four groups of the following universities and research institutes: Department of Computational Science and Statistics of the Mathematical Science Institute, São Carlos Campus of University of São Paulo, Department of Production Engineering of Federal University of São Carlos, Department of Scientific Computation of Aeronautic Institute of Technology, and Associate Laboratory for Computing and Applied Mathematics of National Institute for Space Research. (AU)